Got a premium Jaxtr account for free

Just checking through one of my email accounts [yeah I got many – free, you see ;)], I came across this mail which Thunderbird had marked as junk. Normally I wouldn’t have thought twice before deleting it. Yet some some reason I opened it. It was from Jaxtr, and it said that I had been awarded a premium Jaxtr account for free. Jaxtr – a service that I had found interesting enough to sign up for and check it out. I had even blogged about it. My enthusiasm about the service arose mainly from my ability to send SMSes for free to other phones. However, just a few days after I had posted it, they had stopped sending the actual message to the receiver, so me too lost all interest in the service and forgot all about it.

So it came as a pleasant surprise when I got this message from them. Me likes to think it had something to do with the blog post I wrote [had informed them about it - cheap self-publicity he he!!], or it may be just that they are going about handing out premium accounts to every Tom, Dick and Harry they bump into and I happen to be the Harry among them [just kidding!! your gesture is highly appreciated].

As a premium account holder I am entitled to some special benefits not enjoyed by you commoners [ok that was yet another PJ from me – this coffee has made me tipsy]. My profile page also has the premium tag shown prominently –further reinforcing my special user status.

First tried sending an SMS. Voila!! the actual message got sent to the receiver. I then called up a friend on his landline and then on his cellphone and both reached him. So far so good.

Now that I have a premium account to use, I got a month to figure out what I can do with it [valid only for a month, you see]. Till then – Happy Jaxtring.

P.S: Was going through their blog and found some pictures of their staff members.

A sizeable number of them look distinctly South Asian [read Indian ;)]. Way to fellas!!

Godspeed

Submit blogs and sites to multiple Web directories and bookmarking sites for free

Submitting your blog/ site to web directories and social bookmarking sites is generally a good way of attracting interested people to your blog. You also get backlinks to your blog, that would play a role in increasing your pagerank. However, signing up at each and every directory and bookmarking site before you can submit your blog can be a boring and tedious process. I recently found this site that does away with the task of signing up with each directory before submission – all for Free.

Submitterbot is an online service that allow you to submit your sites/blogs to multiple Web directories and Social bookmarking sites without having to sign up on each and every one of them. It claims to be able to submit to more than 400 directories and an equally large number of bookmarking site.

The site has got a clean, uncluttered layout – a definite good first impression. Signing up was simple. You have to put in some relevant information about your site. Once done, you can start submitting your site to the different directories it supports. All you have to do is select the relevant category under which you want it submitted and, if asked, fill up the captcha. Once done, it will open the page to the next directory your blog can be submitted to. Submitting your site to bookmarking sites is done the same way. You submit articles to multiple article directories in a similar manner. Multiple sites can be submitted  through it, though at a given time you can submit only one site.

I normally wouldn’t have bothered submitting my blog to directories and bookmarking sites. But the sheer ease with which one can do so prompted me to sign up with the service. Submitting to each directory/ bookmarking site took no more than a couple of seconds. I must add, though, that the directories and bookmarking sites it submits to are all relatively new and quite unknown [to me at least]. But hey! it is quick and more importantly it is Free! [though it does some paid features, something that I couldn’t be bothered with]. It is a win-win situation for you [it is wise, however, to use an email id that that you do not use for important correspondences].

I Googled [not very hard ;)] for similar services and found that most of them are either paid or submit to a relatively less sites.

Your site being approved for listing on the respective directories is subject to approval of the directory owners you are submitting to [something that I just learned he he!!].

Submitterbot, in my opinion, is  a very useful service they have developed and could be used to good use by those wanting to increase their sites visibility. Give it a try – you might benefit from it.

Godspeed

Dr. Randy Pausch has passed away

Professor Dr. Randy Pausch has passed away. He has succumbed to pancreatic cancer with which he had been waging a valiant and relentless battle ever since he was diagnosed in the summer of 2006. He died on 25^th July 2008 at around 2130 Indian Standard Time [IST]. He is survived by his wife Mrs. Jai Glasgow Pausch and their three kids – Dylan Pausch, Logan Pausch and Chloe Pausch.

I believe it was fate that took me to his site today just a few hours after his demise. Although I had been a regular visitor there, my visits had become increasingly few and far between over the last couple of months. I am not sure what got me to access his blog, just as I about to log out of my Internet connection, but I did. The message that greeted me numbed me with the shock and grief.

Randy died this morning of complications from pancreatic cancer. The CMU news story is here

This one line said it all. The end of the life of a great man – a man loved by one and all and whose lifetime would serve as an example of how one must lead his/her own life and reach the peak of ones chosen field. Though it was expected that would finally succumb to this dreadful illness, I was still praying for some divine intervention by which he would be cured of the terrible illness. Alas, it was not to be this and Dr. Randy Pausch has left us all for his heavenly abode.

I had come to know of him only after he had delivered his lecture ‘Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams’. At around that time I myself had been facing some of my own challenges and his lecture proved to be an invaluable aid in overcoming it. Since then I had been following his progress and praying for his recovery. Though I have never met him or had interaction of any sorts, his passing away feels like as if I have lost some one extremely close and intimate. His passing away leaves within me a sort of vacuum, that would not be filled up easily.

No words would mitigate the grief being experienced by the family he has left behind, certainly not from a person they have never met. Yet through my blog, I offer my heartfelt condolences to the family of Dr. Randy Pausch, especially to Mrs. Pausch and their kids, for whom it must be a loss of a magnitude I may not even be able to begin to comprehend.

In Dr. Pausch I had found a guiding light to help me face the challenges in my life. He would be remembered and his teachings followed by one and all.

Godspeed

I had written a blog post about him earlier. You may read it here.

How to use a custom domain name with Tumblr?

I recently started Tumblogging. Quite enjoy it too. I use it to share interesting News that I come across while going through the RSS feeds/ Google Alerts I have subscribed to. Tumblr is a relatively new blogging platform that has combined in its service aspects of micro-* along with the traditional blogging in a seamless manner. It also allows the user a high degree of customization of his/her blog. One of them is the ability to use your own custom domain name with your blog - Free of cost, quite like Blogger.

In order to use out very own custom domain name with our Tumblr blog, we would be using 3 free services.

1.) CO.CC [Domain registrar/ custom domain name provider]

2.) EveryDNS [Nameserver providers]

3.) Tumblr [Blogging service]

 

1.) CO.CC [Domain registrar/ custom domain name provider]

co.cc is one of the two free domain name registrars that allows the use of DNS for your domain name. The other such service that allows the use of DNS is uni.cc [example.uni.cc]. But IMO co.cc sounds better and most importantly sounds quite like a paid domain name too ;). So your custom domain name will read example.co.cc, where you replace example with the name of your choice.

Register yourself for an account with co.cc. Once registered, on its home page, type in the your desired domain name in the box provided.

If it is available [and for Free], you will be greeted with a message that looks like this.

Click on continue to registration. It will then ask you to setup the domain within 48 hours.

Click on the Set up button. In the page that opens up, select the first option – Manage DNS. Add the following information the space provided for Name Server [will be discussed later]

ns1.everydns.net

ns2.everydns.net

ns3.everydns.net

ns4.everydns.net

Click on the link [+ Add more name Servers] if enough boxes are not provided to enter all the Name Servers shown. Then click on the Set up button, which will take you to the page telling you that your change have been submitted – click on OK. You may now log out of your co.cc account; your work here is over.

You could use any domain name – paid or free.

2.) EveryDNS [Name Server provider]

We will be using the free Name Servers provided by EveryDNS for our blog. Register yourself with EveryDNS for an account. Once registered, log into your account. On the left, you shall see a section marked Webhop Domains. Type in the domain name you had registered with co.cc earlier and click on the button marked >>(basic).

Once done that domain name will now appear on the left column in the section marked Primary Domains.

Clicking on it will open up a page showing you dummy entries for that domain – one A-record and one CNAME entry. Delete the A-record entry from there. Then got down to the section marked Add a record and enter the 2 A-records as shown. Click the Add Record button after each addition.

(click on the image to see a larger image)

 

Once the record is successfully added, delete the CNAME record entry. Your records in EveryDNS control panel will look like this.

Delete any records other than these two. Your work in EveryDNS is over, you may now safely log out of the account.

 3.) Tumblr [Blogging service]

Signing up for Tumblr is a quickie quickie no-brainer – just do it. The first time you login, you will be given a guided tour of sorts.

On the dashboard, click on the customize link. The page will automatically open up in the desired tab. Check the box and type in the registered domain name.

  

Once done, click on the Save changes box and log off. Wait for 48 hours [safe estimate] and you will find your Tumblr blog accessible with your own custom domain name.

Your Tumblog alongside your existing blog/site.

If you wish to maintain your existing site/blog along with your tumblog, then you could create a sub-domain pointing to your tumblog. This blog also has a tumblog as a subdomain – tumblr.shubhspace.co.cc. Choose any word that you wish – I chose tumblr. Go to your Tumblr control panel and in the very same place mentioned earlier type the appropriate subdomain.

In your EveryDNS control panel [assuming you using EveryDNS ;)], add an A-record pointing the subdomain to Tumblr.

Once successfully added your Tumblr blog will now be accessible with the address which is a subdomain of our existing blog.

Happy tumblogging!!

Godspeed

Update and backup your drivers with DriverMax

Just finished formatting and re-installing on my Windows partition. Of all the steps involved, installing the device drivers usually  takes the longest, not least because each of them need to be installed one by one, meaning multiple mouse clicks and is accompanied by a need to restart the computer after each driver installation [restart every time can be avoided, but it is preferable]. Not quite the case since the last couple of installs though ;).

Using DriverMax, you can back up all the drivers from your previous installation and install them all together in your new Windows install with a single click and needing just a single re-start.

Once installed, it also searches for updates for your installed drivers and informs you when available, thus helping you keep your installed drivers up-to-date. You can use it to generate a detailed report identifying each and every hardware present in your computer. This can then be shared with friends or your tech support guy. Very useful in case your computer starts acting up and you need someone to help you fix it without much trouble.

Best of all it is a freeware, though it requires you to register on their website for free before you can start using this useful windows-based software.

Godspeed

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